To build a better future for mankind? the curvy redhead says with a smirk. Backwards goal, I'd wager. Why not build a better mankind for the future? Looking over the lab with some interest, her gaze focuses again on the other people in the room with her. How 'bout men tha' could recover from any wound or disease without aid, even normally crippling or lethal ones? Men tha' could choose their age, being as young or old as they felt like it? Or their looks, obviating tha need for cosmetics, corrective surgery and feelings of inadequacy all too often followin' tha idea of ugliness? Food and water becoming a luxury, not need, so tha' none would starve? Extending her left index finger to touch the floor lightly, she closes her eyes in focus. An inch-long crack forms and a red-green stalk grows out of it, forming a small spiral that rises a couple of feet, leaves and thorns sprouting out of it till the growth culminates with a striking flower of seven petals, each in turn red, orange, yellow, green, blue, magenta and violet. Obviously unearthly - there never was a flower that looked like a rainbow that you've heard before and the plant itself looked alien - but just as obviously alive, the girl pets her creation for a moment before looking up at the others.Amazing, are they not? Tha vistas these "powers" open up to us. The ability to create... and here she flicks her fingers at the flower and it decomposes before your eyes ...and the might to destroy.

"Whoa! 'Build a better mankind for the future'. And your power gives you the right to make the decisions about exactly what is and isn't better? Yeah, I'm no Brad Pitt, but I'm OK with that. If I want to change the way I look, I'll make that decision and I'll work to make those changes happen. Self determined age? Yeah, completely breaking away from the natural cycle can't have any possible consequences. Breeding out the risk of injury? So we'll just completely rework the majority of the medical and legal systems, and that won't cause some chaos. Stabbed someone sixteen times? No problem, they instantly got better, so no harm no foul right? No physical evidence of an assault, so it becomes a case of one person's word over another's. And of course you'll make sure that every single person on the planet has unfettered access to this 'improvement', or do you get to decide who is and is not worthy of this great new future? Sorry hot girl, but you are getting way too close to some serious eugenic megalomania, just because of some quirk of fate that you did nothing to earn. Doc, if you are looking for recruits, sign me up. If for no other reason than stopping that kind of thinking from spreading."

OOC- Sorry Belial, but Eve's micro manifesto stomped firmly on Zach's intolerance complication, so I had to run with it.

Nope. Eve shakes an admonishing finger at Zach. Mine abilities come with tha duty ta provide such an opportunity ta anyone who asks. Not availin' themselves of it is still up ta them. But as far as I can see? Those problems will start appearin' within the next few decades anyway. What's the percentage of the population tha' can afford good medical care now? How 'bout corrective surgery or gene therapy? The redhead snorts, shaking her head. Tha life sciences are undergoing a revolution. Cures for until now incurable diseases are bein' prepared - will they be affordable? How long until regeneration therapies obviate tha need for transplants and mechanical limbs ta those that can pay well enough? And what happens when telomere repair allows the rich to live as much as two hundred years while eugenics ensure their children and heirs will always be smarter, stronger, faster than those that can't pay the million dollars for tha prebirth treatments?

Nodding to the Doctor, she frowns - maybe at Zach's declaration, maybe not.Tis true, I done nothing ta earn what I got. That be why I joined - a duty provin' what I got is deserved. As for sufferin' from megalomania, I couldn't say meself. Though it occurs to me - are you seein' any nigh undetectable new drugs in tha market, tha have no side-effects except breaking addictions other than their own? Retroviral plagues perhaps that only trigger on tha higher strata of our society ta cripple them? Those might be mighty good indications of megalomania coupled with th' ability ta grow anything one wanted given time. And if our powers be not unique, such we might need to fight soon. What if tha government or tha mob got its hands on those like us as the good doctor said?

OOC - No problem. Eve is a bit stubborn and might be a tad megalomaniac herself but she still believes in morality. She isn't old enough (or faced enough hardship) for her faith in people to erode.

The Doc listens to the exchange with interest and maybe a bit of sorrow, eyeing Eve closely. " Hmm...it is good to see that so far, you all have clear thought patterns. Which is fortunate, because these powers...they come with a hefty price." He turns to the man in the wheelchair, lightly tapping him on the shoulder." Meet Marcus...my son."The frail man's eyes do not open, but the motion behind the lids increases to a frantic pace. A second later, a carefully modulated, electronic voice echoes across the room." A good day to each of you. I'm sorry for my lack of participation in your discussion, but I am currently scanning the CIA databases for useful intel."

Chris looks at the two man, wondering if one looks younger than he is or the other older... And the powers of the girl seems even more crazier the more she talks about it. Was she just advocating gene therapy with all of the gathered persons most likely considered abnormalities?

Zach has his mouth half open to respond to Eve's explanation, the urge to debate crackling in his mind, but the doctor's words take the fight right out of him. "Wait, what kind of price are you talking about? Is he... Doc, Marcus, uh..may I?" the young man asks, lightly tapping his glasses.

" Go ahead", Kensington says, nodding. " The price is actually dependant on the nature of your abilities. Maybe we should start at the beginning...meaning, the point where I try and explain where your powers come from...as far as I know. Marcus...would you please?"

The screen behind him flickers to light, showing two figures, a man with lightning springing from his fingers and another, who bends a steel pipe in half. " Superhuman strength and spontaneous energy emission. These will serve as easy anaolgues to your powers. As the learned among you might know, most of your powers are not completely impossible. Seeing in different wavelengths, underwater breathing, bursts of superhuman strength, even cellular regeneration...these are all things observable in nature. Usually not as strong as with you, but still, these and more are all things that could theoretically exist. Letting lightning spring from your fingertips or fly without wings...or teleport yourself...these things are impossible by our current standards of knowledge, at least without technological help. And yet, we have reliable accounts of people who possess such powers."He turns to look at Eve. " Miss, what do you know about the theories of Lamarck?"

You mean tha "Complexifying Force" and tha "Adaptive Force" ? Eve frowns. Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet's greatest gift to humanity was tha first ever comprehensive theory of evolution. While simplistic and alchemical compared to the science we be havin' now, he first claimed that there is a "force" that pushes living organisms towards greater and greater complexities and another "force" which pushes them to adapt to external stimuli. The redhead shrugs, sits back in the nearest available chair and crosses her legs.Simplistic though he may have been, he was essentially correct. But if you're trying ta link our powers t' adaptive evolution... this isn't flat-out impossible but tha chance millions upon millions of years of random changes would happen in a single generation do be pretty small. Not ta mention tha external triggers we all adapted to.

Not unless there be an external factor, a stimulus tha' pushed this evolution far more than normal environmental ones.

"And I'm guessing that the further one's abilities deviate from the naturally occurring, the heftier the toll it takes on the subject. Like overclocking a processor, the more you push the greater the likelihood of overheating and crashing. The more of these two forces that are applied to an organism, the greater the chance that other natural abilities or systems are compromised in the process." As he is letting his train of thought trail out of his mouth, Zach is staring intently at Marcus. Focusing on the millions of minute impulses that make up the neural system, he tries to get a feeling for what is going on with the decrepit young man.

OOC- Not really sure what kind of roll this would be. Even with Eidetic Memory, the chance of Zach having actually read something at one point that would pertain to this situation would be pretty darn slim. More looking for a sense of how much neural activity there is and if it is basically in the same parts of the brain as other people he has scanned.

Marcus' brain is a hotbed of activity, some parts of it practically glowing with emergent electromagnetic force. For Zach, it is painfully obvious why the young man cannot move...there simply is no energy left for any motion control to work with when the rest of the brain is in overdrive, absorbing data at a manic pace...

" Yes, you pretty much understood. As far as I understand it, the background level of cosmic and terrestric radiation has increased tremendously within the last century. Earthly radiation is easy to explain, since radioactivity has been on the rise ever since the Manhattan project. Now, my research has shown that earth has been bombarded with hitherto unknown, strange particles for the last five years. I do not presume to know the nature of these partciles, nor the reason they are here...but our bodies react to the bombardment. By hypermutation. It appears as if our bodies try desperately to adapt to something. And, obviously, not even the laws of physics stand in their way..."

"Sorry, redhead, but I'm not sure declaring producing airborne neurotoxins to be natural for humans will keep you more sane. With enough scientific theories and mambo jumbo you can explain almost everything as natural. Buoyancy in saltwater is natural for example, but we just learned that buoyancy in air without wings may cause mental damage." Chris interjects.

The Doc shakes his head. " So far we have only witnessed extraordinary abilities in humans...though, given our close relation, apes could also be affected. The stranger abilities, however, would most likely only occur in humans, due to the way our brain is constructed. As far as we know, abilities that represent an exaggeration of normal capabilities are the most common...and not truly dangerous. Those who exhibit powers that are actually physically impossible...they risk are a true danger to themselves and others. Because nearly all of them seem to develop neural deterioration and a variety of mental illnesses."

Wha' if someone be havin' an "exaggeration" of a normal ability but also be insane or unhinged due to reasons mundane? the redhead asks with obvious interest. Fer example, human bodies be identifying intruders then producing custom chemical and genetic weapons against them in a matter of hours or a couple o' days at most. Controlling and dispersing such products be a simple enough adaptation tha' ta some extent even normal species be havin' - all the poisonous ones. Can ye imagine a terrorist or government spook knowin' to produce airborne neurotoxins by breathing? How about a guy in an asylum secretin' engineered plagues by sweating? Shaking an admonishing figure at the much older doctor, she smiles.I be surprised at ye Doctor Kensington. Ye obviously know yer anthropology so why think only problematic powers will amount to actual problems? Five humans out of ten will break at least one law fer emotional satisfaction or indifference. Four out of ten will do so fer profit. And one out of ten will do out of malice.

Someone breakin' no laws in their normal life is statistically improbable. Why, I violated two countries' worth of F.I.R. and national borders, half tha immigration laws in this country, three treaties and a mutual defense pact, all of th' aerospace safety regulations ever plus tha urban regulations of noise pollution just by comin' here. And that's only tha laws I know I broke so far today.

Zach shakes his head slightly as his eyes refocus. He looks at Eve in confused amazement. "Really? My powers don't seem too far afield from what Marcus seems to be able to do, so I may be getting a sneak preview of my future and I am scared as hell. And what I can do seems like small potatoes compared to your little demonstrations thus far. Yet you seem more concerned with playing scientific gotcha with the doc than anything else. So yes, if it will move us along, I will concede that you are the smartest person in the room. Now can we please get back to Dr. Kennsington's MULTIPLE concerns," then a Zach pops a finger up to count off each point. "Namely the misuse of these new abilities; which, correct me if I'm wrong doc, would include the malicious use of any powers and the uncontrolled or unconscious use of any intrinsically dangerous power. The attempt to control those who manifest powers. Finally, the very real possibility that we all may find ourselves developing any number of mental or physical afflictions as a result of our powers. Now your powers may make you immune to all of that, and if so, mazel tov. I for one would love to stop bandying about hypotheticals and deal with what we actually know. So, doc, what do we actually know?" The little man is breathing a bit hard and has been talking EXTREMELY quickly as he has gotten more agitated. Almost realizing how worked up he's gotten, Zach begins fidgeting a bit and avoiding eye contact with everyone else...